This is a compilation of 22 Palestinian prisoners' experiences in Israeli jails . 1,027 prisoners were released in 2011 as part of the exchange with Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and 22 of them were interviewed by journalists. Their commentaries were translated by CPDS and edited.
The book is dedicated to Samer Issawi and all Palestinian prisoners, past, present and future, and was released on 17April 2013, in conjunction with Palestinian Prisoners' Day.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Israel’s Military Prosecution Denies Parents Right to Accompany Children

Israeli soldiers severely beat Hendi S, 17, after arresting him on Sept. 19 on suspicion of stone throwing, according to his affidavit, and one of them burned his arm with a cigarette.

Ramallah, January 16, 2014—Israel’s military prosecution denied last week the parents of a Palestinian child called upon to testify in an investigation over his alleged abuse by Israeli soldiers from accompanying their son. The decision contradicts a previous precedent set by the prosecution in summer 2012, allowing “a close relative (father or mother) who is not a lawyer” to be present during a child’s deposition.

We are launching a campaign to highlight the plight of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, and specifically G4S complicity in their torture and suffering.

Currently there are 17 Palestinian women political prisoners in Israeli prisons. All but one is in HaSharon prison in Israel. The British private security contractor G4S provides the full security system at HaSharon including the central command room for the entire prison. The transfer of Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank and Gaza to into Israel (to HaSharon Prison) is illegal under international law and constitutes a war crime, G4S is complicit in this by the services it provides to HaSharon Prison.

Before being brought to prison the women have to endure weeks, sometimes months, of torture at one of Israel's interrogation centres to extract confessions from them - usually the infamous 'Russian Compound' in Jerusalem or the notorious Al-Jalame torture den - both these facilities are also secured by G4S.

The longest serving Palestinian women prisoner is Lena Al-Jarboni who has endured 11 years in HaSharon. The campaign will centre around her as an example of what Palestinian women have to endure and their resilience and steadfastness in the face of the occupation prisons.

LENA Al-JARBONI

Lena was born in 1974 to a Palestinian family near Acre in 1948 Palestine. Due to financial difficulty she could not complete her studies and worked in sewing workshops to help her family. In 2002 she was picked up by Israeli security. After 30 days of severe torture at Israels notorious G4S secured Al-Jalame torture den they charged her with "collaborating with the enemy" - she unlike her Palestinian friends has an Israeli citizenship. They sentenced her to 17 years in HaSharon women's prison.

At HaSharon prison Palestinian women prisoners have to endure beatings, insults, threats, sexually explicit harassment and sexual violence, and humiliation at the hands of Israeli guards. Often they are forced to undergo degrading and intrusive body searches during the middle of the night for no reason other an as a punitive measure. Women have been beaten and left tied to their bed for a day and a half and not allowed to go to the toilet as punishment for spilling water. The cells at HaSharon prison are overcrowded, dirty and infected with rodents and cockroaches. There is a total absence of basic hygiene, women have even been denied sanitary pads when menstruating. The heat is unbearable, The windows are closed and covered so that hardly any air or daylight can enter. The food is insufficient, and of inferior quality & dirty, often containing insects & worms, at times there are not enough portions for all the women.

The Prisoners' Diaries Arabic version book

In Gaza it will be available for sale at the Hashim Yeop Sani library at the Centre for Political and Development Studies , Nema'a Tower, Gaza City. Sale proceeds will be used to fund library activities to encourage citizen journalism.

Book reviews

" This book is so valuable as it combines the witnessing by prisoners with just enough information about the magnitude of the Israeli prison system to give readers a true understanding of this most agonizing dimension of the Palestinian ordeal.”(..More)

− Richard Falk,Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University and UN Special Rapporteur for occupied Palestinian Territories

"While activists and supporters of the Palestinian cause will undoubtedly be outraged by the atrocities narrated in this book, it would serve as an incentive for international leaders and organisations clamouring for human rights to reconsider and reconcile themselves with the universality of such themes."-- Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor. (..More)

“ I defy you to read these stories and not weep for Jews and Palestinians. Now dry your eyes and work for justice, peace and reconciliation.”